The Current State of Ultrabook PCs

Yesterday, NPD released a glimpse of Ultrabook sales year-to-date.  A few things to point out in the release:

•  window notebook PC sales fell 17 percent through the first 5 months of the year
•  Ultrabooks captured 11 percent of the $700+ notebook PC market through the first five months of the year
• Likley because of ultrabooks, sales of $700+ notebook PCs were only down 3% year-to-date
• again likely because of ultrabooks, the share of sales from the $700+ notebook segment increased from about 12 percent in 2011 to nearly 14 percent in 2012
• Ultrabook selling prices have averaged $927 over the first five months of 2012
• Ultrabook selling prices dipped to $885 for the first time in May – suggesting to me that it is getting both more competitive and more discerning consumers are now entering the market. As the market attracts more mass market consumers they will have a lower average buying price than the early adopter segment
• The average market price for all Windows computers is $510 and that has risen by $13 since the same period in 2011